Discussion

French restaurant where the waiters speak French?

Here's an off the wall question: My daughter--a 7th grader in Berkeley--is looking for a French restaurant where the waiters speak French. Her French class is studying food words and is interested in going to a restaurant to try them out. So she needs French speaking waiters/servers and a place that's willing to handle a substantial number of middle schoolers. Berkeley or East Bay would be best, but San Francisco would be possible. Thoughts?

How about contacting La Folie and see if they could arrange something for them? The regular waiters don't speak french (at least I don't remember that they do), but the sommelier and ? his wife (hostess) do and it wouldn't hurt to explain the situation and see if they'd do something special for the young ones - maybe a special lunch (when they are normally closed).

Yes La Folie is expensive but I was suggesting a one off the menu experience (eg a special lunch) which perhaps could be done at a more reasonable price... or maybe not but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I think the problem is to find french speaking wait staff - I recently ate at Chapeau (and unfortunately wasn't too impressed with the food but that is another story) - and while the owners speak french it was not clear that the wait staff do. Not a surprise given the economics of being a waiter vs other jobs one could get being bilingual--- but I was thinking that the trick might be to find an owner who would think it was fun to do something like this for the kids and maybe not charge too much.

I was just at Fringale the other night and had a good meal. The waiters were speaking French to each other and some ex-pats seated at the bar. I tried the asian pear and apple salad, the crab napoleon (very fresh crab), the moules frites (yummy), and the seafood basquaise. The service was on top of it without being overbearing. It was what we were looking for. Our table also loved the French onion soup, but I didn't get to try it (it looked great though). Prices are reasonable w/ entrees ranging from $17-mid twenties at dinner.

I haven't been there, but from rworange's report, I think the people at Cafe Saint Honore in Albany speak French. It's not expensive and in the East Bay, so it may be worth considering. Also, the rather attractive waiters at Plouf in Belden Place in SF are French, I believe.

yes, servers I've had at L'Petit Laurent definitely speak French, and in fact I think they prefer it if given a choice, so it is an excellent choice in that regard. However, unfortunately they are quite small and I don't think they could handle a group of any size. Might be worth a call though. One advantage: they are very easy to get to from BART, just across the street from the Glen Park Station.